Reader Services Blog

If you are looking for an activity that the whole family can enjoy, take a trip to the Field Museum to see Whales: Giants of the Deep. Glenside has some great materials to look at before you visit the museum.

We all enjoyed fairy tales when we were growing up. In fact, that was the one part of bedtime we enjoyed. Pick up one of these updated versions of the classic fairy tales and see what memories it brings back.

C. J. Box is a New York Times bestselling author who has won various awards such as: the Edgar Alan Poe Award for Best Novel (BLUE HEAVEN, 2009) as well as the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, the Barry Award, and the 2010 Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Award for fiction. His short stories have been featured in America’s Best Mystery Stories of 2006 and limited-edition printings. 2008 novel BLOOD TRAIL was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin (Ireland) Literary Award. The novels have been translated into 25 languages. BLUE HEAVEN and NOWHERE TO RUN have been optioned for film.

Box is a Wyoming native and has worked as a ranch hand, surveyor, fishing guide, a small town newspaper reporter and editor, and he co-owns an international tourism marketing firm with his wife Laurie. In 2008, Box was awarded the "BIG WYO" Award from the state tourism industry. An avid outdoorsman, Box has hunted, fished, hiked, ridden, and skied throughout Wyoming and the Mountain West. He served on the Board of Directors for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. They have three daughters. He lives in Wyoming. Source: http://www.cjbox.com

Open Season deals with the environmental issue of an endangered animal species. Game Warden, Joe Pickett faces corruption from his colleague and former Supervisor that greatly affects the safety, welfare and health of his family. Murders occur. Energy companies are involved. The common theme of "so-called" good vs. evil takes place.

The issue of environment vs energy is not resolved in this novel.

The story is often told in third person. The author talks about the personalities of his characters, their backgrounds, work histories, past and current relationships, and their community reputations. For example, Joe Pickett had worked with Wacey Hedeman, another Game Warden, on numerous projects and investigations together - built hay fences, shared horses, snow machines, traded notes, and called on each other for help. The characters are well developed. I felt I got to know a number of the characters as "real" people.

The author relates why characters have certain likes and dislikes based on their life experiences. For example, Joe does not like hospitals or nurses because he felt that they had lied to him about the causes of his mother's injuries when he was six years old.

The chapters were brief and fast paced, full of character description, plot telling, action and emotional character responses.

The author does a nice job of summarizing the resulting outcomes of the main characters and the status of any outstanding issues raised. The reader is not left hanging with very many loose ends at the novel's close.

I would recommend this novel to teens and adults who enjoy action, mysteries and the exploring of issues with competing interests.

Since Open Season is currently the first in a twelve novel series the reader may look forward to continue reading about the adventures and life of Joe Pickett, Game Warden. The author includes a preview of Savage Run the next Joe Pickett novel in this series at the end.- MA

Are you looking for a fast-paced story that combines the best elements of romance and suspense? Romantic suspense novels are filled with strong female characters who get caught in dangerous situations. There's always a strong undercurrent of romance in these page-turners.

River levels are high in Portland when a woman walking her dog comes across the skeleton of a young black man, murdered over fifty years ago. Journalist, Susan Ward investigates. Meanwhile, Detective Archie Sheridan and his team have turned their attention to child-killer Ryan Motley, trained by the notorious Gretchen Lowell. The task force must pursue a series of mysterious clues from Gretchen, one of which leads to a Vanport flood survivor, who happens to be the grandfather of a murdered child. Then, when another child is found murdered, Archie's investigation takes on a new urgency.

A lonely death / Charles ToddIt's 1920. Three men are dead, all garroted, all war veterans. When a piece of evidence, kept from the public, suggests a much stronger link between the victims and the unknown, it's up to World War I battered survivor, Scotland Yard Detective Ian Rutledge to find the killer.

The keeper of lost causes / Jussi Adler-Olsen ; translated by Lisa Hartford.

Chief detective Carl Mørck, recovering from what he thought was a career-destroying gunshot wound, is relegated to cold cases and becomes immersed in the five-year disappearance of a politician.

Darkside / Belinda Bauer

In bleak midwinter, the people of Shipcott are shocked by the murder of an elderly woman in her bed. As snow cuts off the village, local policeman Jonas Holly is torn between catching a brutal killer and protecting his vulnerable wife, Lucy. When the inquiry is commandeered by an abrasive senior detective, Jonas finds himself derided by his colleagues and ashamed to admit to Lucy that he's been sidelined. It seems his first murder investigation may be over before it's begun. But when he receives a series of increasingly sinister anonymous notes, Jonas is thrust back into the center of the case. Someone in the village is taunting him, blaming him for the tragedy. Someone thinks he's not doing his job; someone seems to know every move he makes. And soon Jonas has to ask: Who's hunting who?

Takers [DVD-videorecording] PG-13

A notorious group of criminals continue to baffle police by pulling off one perfectly executed bank robbery after another. They are in and out like clockwork, leaving no evidence behind, and laying low between heists. But when they attempt to pull off one last job with more money at stake than ever before, the crew may find their plans interrupted by a hardened detective who is hell-bent on solving the case.

Surveillance [DVD-videorecording] RIt has not been a good day. When Federal Officers Elizabeth Anderson and Sam Hallaway arrive at Captain Billing's office, they have three sets of stories to figure out and a string of vicious murders to consider. One zealot cop, a strung out junkie and an eight year old girl all sit in testimony to the roadside rampage, but as the Feds begin to expose the fragile little details each witness conceals so carefully with a well practiced lie, they soon discover that uncovering 'the truth' can come at a very big cost.

Nora Roberts' northern lights [DVD-videorecording]NR

Haunted by the death of his partner, former Baltimore cop Nate Burns accepts the job as chief of police in a remote Alaskan town. Once there, he falls for feisty bush pilot Meg Galligan, a woman haunted by her own demons. When Meg's father turns up dead, Nate and Meg finds themselves at the center of a high-profile murder case. - MA